


Flame Red and Aqua Blue

by Tarasque



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Adventures In Space, And porn on the ground, Crossdressing, Finn and Poe being heroes as usual, Love in time of war, M/M, Porn With Plot, Singing, Some plot at least
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-16
Updated: 2016-08-17
Packaged: 2018-08-09 04:26:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 16,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7786714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarasque/pseuds/Tarasque
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The times are hard for the Resistance, but that doesn't mean Jessika Pava can't have her fun. Especially if it involves convincing Poe to revisit his past. Finn watches and learns.</p>
<p>But the best crossdressing plans have a way of going astray in times of war.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Do I still know how to post here? I do. Yay for vacations with a computer but no connexion! Good for writing.
> 
> A two chapters fic, the second one should be up tomorrow. Hope you enjoy!
> 
> Unbetaed, let me know if anything feels odd.

Finn likes the Resistance base mess at mid-morning. He’s the only customer, except for the usual Mon Calamari who Finn has determined is very old, possibly a relative of Admiral Ackbar’s, and a mystery as far as his function in the Resistance is concerned – do they really keep people here just because they can?

The pilots are up in space or resting in their bunks, the mechanics are busy trying to will more clunkers into functional starships and anyone else is planning, training, on a mission, or just frantically scrambling around fighting to keep the Resistance afloat.

The underground mess feels calm, the sounds soft and echoing slightly. The air is cooler and drier than anywhere else in the new base. Finn likes the soft humming of the one-armed Keshian bartender – the mechanic limb never really took, he’s been told. He likes the Spartan furniture made of repurposed space crates, the metallic walls, the lack of greenery, nothing overwhelming for this ex-Stormtrooper’s senses. Medical has allowed him to give a hand tidying the place and he can’t help aligning the tables just so, shining their tops to starship standards and squaring their chairs to the millimeter. Old habits die hard.

“Here,” says the Keshian – Nielhio, that’s his name, so many names to remember now. A portion of cake lands in front of Finn. “You okay?”

Finn must have zoned out, realises he was standing with his back too straight and his feet aligned and that there wasn’t a helmet to hide his expression. He smiles.

“Yeah. I’m good.”

That’s not a lie. If anyone asked him, Finn would say the month and a half since he’s waken from his coma has been the best of his life. When he thinks of the reasons why he’ll acknowledge that it’s better no one did ask.

He’s happy because for the first time in his life he’s allowed to be human.

Being human means you can be scared – scared _is_ good. It’s freeing to let his fears show in more than the tilt of an armoured shoulder, to stop being woken by the echoes of the First Order mantra in his head, we are the strongest, we are on the right path, we cannot lose. It feels right, even curiously reassuring, to realise that people on the base all acknowledge how frail they are against the enemy. How thinly spread. All around him, they tell it in bad jokes or drunken rants or meaningful midnight conversations, and everyone on the base knows that this lull, this false peace as the whole Galaxy erupts into chaos could end the next day with TIEs swarming in the heavens. Everyone knows they could die, but stands up nonetheless, fights, and holds on.

Being human means being bored. No one has heard of a bored Stormtrooper – Finn certainly hadn’t, to the point that he had to have the concept explained. It’s a normal stage of the healing process, they tell him, the pain mostly gone, but the body still weak and unresponsive enough that he can’t ask it to do what it should. It’s human to feel like doing nothing, they tell him. It’s human to let yourself heal. So he waits, and drifts, and perversely enjoys the lazing around.

But being human, and a former Stormtrooper, means being lonely. No Stormtrooper has ever been lonely before Finn. They have their squadmates, their officers, and if everything else fails they have the constant drone of the First Order propaganda in their mind. They’re part of the most single-minded collective ever. Here… How could you blame people if they are a little uncomfortable around a traitor – of course they don’t call him that here, but he’s an ex-Stormtrooper nonetheless, even if Poe insists that what they should call him is a hero. Except for Nielhio, some of Poe’s pilots, and Leia Organa, they give him a wide berth.

His friends are away, Rey somewhere far away with Skywalker, and Poe - Poe is just entering the mess, stumbling slightly over the threshold and nodding at a long stream of bleeps from BB-8 who’s rolling along.

“Poe!” Finn exclaims, standing up and hurrying towards him – what can he say? Poe’s hugs feel great. “What are you doing here at nine in the morning? I thought you were still up in space?”

“Hi, Finn,” Poe says, yawning. “Nah. Came back early last night. I’m just out of a tactical meeting, still have to set up the squadrons’ rotations for the week.” He yawns again and presses his thumbs hard into his eyes, face scrunched. “Sorry. Decided to come here to work, I need a boost.”

Poe pulls a chair out and sits down heavily, then grunts and lifts his arms to stretch his back, nearly knocking down Nielhio’s tray in the process.

“Hey, Commander. Here’s your caf. Double, black.”

“Huh. Thank you. Uh. Could you – I’m sorry, you think you could make it a triple? Night was hard and I can’t crash down just now.”

Nielhio snorts. “If you aren’t already on flying stims, sure. Show me your hands?”

Poe holds them up. “See? Steady as a Corellian senator. Can I get my triple? Wait, actually, I’d like two doubles. And something for Finn, anything you want, buddy? Thanks, Nielhio.”

BB-8 whistles something else, and in spite of his recent progress Finn can’t make much of it. Something involving planet or sector names and long series of numbers, ships models or coordinates or specs.

“Work?” Finn asks.

Poe nods and smiles a little. “Yeah. Doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy the company. We don’t see each other enough with my schedule. How have you been? Your back?”

“I’m good. Back’s good. I’m not in pain anymore and I can walk just fine. I’m just really undermuscled and sort of slow, and Medical still doesn’t want me to get back to training. I’m – it’s – I’m just not used to it, you know? Doing nothing, not pushing my body as I should…”

Under Poe’s gaze, it’s hard not feeling ashamed, and he knows he’s not doing a good job of hiding it. He smiles a little, shrugs, then looks down, hikes up his shirt and grabs at his middle. “I’ve even got fat there, fat, can you imagine? I’d fail the lowest trooper test right now. Ah. It’s – shit. I’m not – I don’t know –”

Poe’s smile is a bit strange but his eyes are very soft and his hands on Finn’s arms very warm.

“Finn,” he says, “Finn. I can totally imagine having fat there. It’s okay. It’s nice. I’ve got some too, see?” He sorts of pulls Finn’s hand onto his own belly and yeah, it’s a bit soft. A bit squishy. Warm. Feels good.

Then Poe’s ears turn red and Finn removes his hand. “Yeah,” Finn says. “Nice.”

BB-8 bloops. There are no words to it but it sounds vaguely grumpy.

Finn begins to stand up. “That’s my clue to leave you to your job,” he says.

Poe’s hand lands on Finn’s thigh this time. “No, no, you can stay. I mean, if you don’t mind watching me and BB-8 moving charts and numbers around. If you don’t have anything else to do?”

Finn grins and sits back. “Told you, my orders are to do nothing. Might as well do it here.”

Poe plugs a datakey into one of BB-8’s ports. They’re soon immersed in whatever they’re doing, the astromech firing up holos of maps and flowcharts and his pilot keying in line upon line of code. They’re not even talking, although Poe sometimes grunts and massages his temples or extends his hand instinctively towards his cup, well into his fifth caf now.

“But we _need_ to do it!” Poe suddenly explodes. “Both the recon for an alternate route through the Crow Crucible and the patrolling across the Salin corridor! We can’t fucking _choose_! And if we don’t find a way to affect at least two freighter qualified pilots for a fuel run the base will run dry in two weeks. No, I don’t know which pilots!”

BB-8 buzzes some more and Poe lets out a frustrated sigh.

“You didn’t update your data yet? They told us this morning. Abafar affiliated with the First Order. Not officially but the way their prices suddenly rose – anyway we can’t afford it. It leaves us Peragus as a provider, hoping we can modify more engines to make it work, but fuck, what a run. What a fucking impossible run!”

The current holomap BB-8’s projecting wavers and fluctuates, routes blinking in and out at a rapid pace. Poe waves away BB-8’s beeping and goes on. “Listen, there must be a way to improve the rotations algorithm. We could code in the skill levels, would allow us to override some of the security settings. Shit, for selected pilots, BB-8, I know it’s dangerous! But listen, the – the Tannhäuser black hole, for example. Every former Starfleet pilot knows how use it as a gravity well. I know I can, and it’s a great shortcut. Yeah. I know the risks, BB.”

Finn can’t help chiming in. “You’d put a lot of pressure on your best pilots that way,” he says. BB-8’s vindicated whistle is definitely in agreement.

Poe lifts up his gaze and his eyes have never been that bruised-looking or that deep set before. “I know,” he says. “But what else can we do?” Then he jumps as hurried steps echo from the staircase. “Shit. That’s Pava. Hide me, Finn?”

Finn looks around at the bare walls and the tables. “Hum,” he says. “Where? And, uh, why?”

Poe grimaces, a little sheepish. “Lost a bet,” he mumbles. “Damn. Too late. Hi, Jess.”

“Commander Dameron,” she smiles, all sweet tones and sharp teeth. “Fancy finding you here. Been hiding?”

“You know I was at debrief and tactical. Anyway. I lost the bet.”

Pava strides in and steps into Poe’s personal space to jab her finger at his chest. “You didn’t just lose the bet. Best pilot in the Resistance my ass! You were abysmal in the asteroid field, Poe. Ten minutes five seconds, that’s one minute and fifty-three seconds over my best time, and you couldn’t even do the AS-1557 loop at the end.”

“Yeah. I was tired. Mission’s been a long one and I’d have blacked out in the loop. Okay, cash in, Testor.”

“See? Not so hard to admit. You. Are. Exhausted. That was what the bet was about, uh? The loser stays on the ground. Gets to rest.”

“I can’t, Jess. I really can’t. Not with Abafar changing sides. We need everyone.”

“You fucking ground yourself, Commander. Right now. Until you can at least stand up without wobbling. Or you’ll make a worse mistake than staying too long in an asteroid field. Come on, Poe. You know it’s the right thing to do. Rest before you crash.”

Poe must really be running on empty because he sighs and says: “Okay. Okay, Testor. And, uh. There was to be something else if you won?”

“Ah, yes.” Her smile is back, happier. Crueller? “For my personal pleasure and maybe the whole base’s. The old pilots, I mean the ex-Republic fleet ones, they keep telling about someone’s, uh, _special_ performances at the Academy. Seems it even went on during his early Starfleet years. To which I say, give me what you gave them, Dameron. Why wouldn’t the Resistance get what the New Republic had?”

“No. No way, Pava.”

Finn would swear Poe’s ears are turning red again.

“You’re a very sore loser, you know? Come on, own it.”

“I’m a senior officer now, not a cadet. It wouldn’t – what would they say? The pilots, the mechanics, everyone? Besides, it’s been eons since I did it. I’m too rusty.”

“What they’d say? ‘Wow’, if what I heard is true. And ‘finally’, probably. I’m not the only one who heard the tale. Come on, Poe. We all need to loosen up a little. Have some fun. Vocally, I _know_ you still have it. I hear you in the comm everyday. As for the rest – is it something you can forget?”

“I won’t be able to look the General in the eye again.”

“Good thing she’s not on base in the next five days, then. She left on a diplomatic mission yesterday.”

“Good.”

“You’ll do it, then?”

“Give me two days. One for sleeping and one for putting up something decent. Trying to anyway.”

“I’ll give you four. Even with the long cycles here, twenty-seven hours of sleep won’t be enough, I’m betting on it.”

“I’m never betting again.”

“Go to sleep, Poe. Finn, would you mind helping him to his bunk? I want an unbiased witness and I don’t trust BB-8.” She grins at the astromech and steps out of the range of his taser. “Sorry, buddy, I don’t. Poe’s too good at turning you around.”

“Okay,” says Finn, feeling, and probably looking, bewildered. “If it’s all right with him. Poe, you want to leave now? Can you sleep with all the caf you’ve ingested?”

Poe’s hand finds its new favourite place on Finn’s forearm, his fingers tracing small figures on the exposed skin there. “I’ll probably have to wind down a little, but yeah. Testor’s right, I’m knackered. I’ll sleep. Thank you for helping. Jess, let me put up the new schedule and I’m good. You realise it means you’ll have to fly my run as well? And that Wexley will have to fill in as squadron leader?”

“Sure, Poe. That was the idea. Snap knows about it and _I_ can still pilot my ship in a straight line, unlike some commanders I know.”

“Yeah, well. Pilot your ship in a straight line in an asteroid field and you’ll see what happens.”

//

Poe’s actually swaying when they reach his quarters, and looks so dead on his feet that BB-8 takes pity and plugs in to key in the door opening code.

Poe blinks against the stark sunlight coming through the window. “Blinds, down,” he manages to say, and sighs in relief in the darkening room. Then he does nothing, standing in front of his bed and still swaying.

“Poe?” Finn asks. “Shit, I didn’t realise you were that exhausted. Bed, or do you want to hit the fresher first?

“Fresher,” Poe mumbles.

“Need help?”

Poe lifts his head and focuses on Finn, his eyes dark. His breath hitches a little as he begins to say something, then he shakes his head and smiles. “No, thanks, I’ll manage. I’m still awake enough to undress by myself.”

“You want me to stay around a little more?”

There it is again, that small hitch in Poe’s breathing. “Yes,” he says. “I’d like to.”

Finn looks around. There are two chairs close to the desk in the corner, on the both of which lay a mix of engine parts (droid parts? Finn’s not an expert), tools, at least two items of clothing, one mug, four datapads, flimsy manuals of all kinds and even a real paper book. The desk is disappearing under the same clutter.

“Sit down,” Poe says, sounding muffled as he pulls his shirt over his head. “The bed’s okay, or you can clear up a chair if you wish. Put everything on the ground, it won’t fall any lower.”

Finn settles for a chair, feeling like a scientist exploring a pristine ecosystem as he methodically sets Poe’s things down.

He has just decided the length of time the water has been running in the fresher went from decadent to preoccupying when Poe finally emerges. If Finn is totally honest with himself, the fact that Poe is already in sleeping clothes – the fact, actually, that Poe isn’t naked, even if he looks quite interesting in an old grey tee and some very short shorts, is a bit disappointing.

“Feel better?” Finn asks.

“Huh. Not really.” On closer inspection, Poe does look terrible, and also like exhaustion stripped him of his usual layer of bravado and cheerfulness. The curve of his mouth feels vulnerable. “Thank you for staying,” he says finally. “Thing is, I have trouble being alone these days. Ah. ‘These days’ meaning since the Finalizer. Doesn’t help my sleep pattern. Don’t tell Pava, uh?”

“But you’ll sleep?”

“Right now I’m sure I will. I’m just too tired.”

“Tell you what,” Finn says. “I’ll stay here until you’re asleep. If you want.”

Poe tosses and turns for a long time. At one point, Finn is quite sure he can hear him muttering about caffeine. But Poe finally stills and when his breathing has remained even long enough, Finn begins to stand up with a last look at the form tangled in the crumpled sheets.

Poe’s eyes open. Finn stops and sits down.

“Pava’s right,” Poe mumbles, eyes open but unfocused, and Finn isn’t quite sure he’s awake. “One of these days I’m gonna make a mistake, a big one. It’s just too many missions. Too close, too long. For some runs there are only two, three of us skilled enough to fly through. Too fucking few. We’re gonna crash. Something’s gonna break.” He makes a strange sound, a kind of long, shuddering, sobbing sigh. “There has to be a change,” he whispers. “Something’s gotta happen or we’re dead. I wish Rey’d come back with Skywalker.”

“Yeah,” Finn says. “Me too.”

“I’m scared,” Poe says, looking so young and disoriented that Finn knows he’s not awake.

Finn goes to sit on the bed and buries his fingers in Poe’s damp hair, massaging the scalp. Poe utters a small moan. “Yeah, me too,” Finn repeats. “It’s okay. We’re scared but we hold on. Right now we still hold. You can sleep, Poe. It’s okay.”

//

When Finn comes back to check on Poe after physical therapy, he’s sleeping on. He’s stopped gripping the sheets, his hands now lax, his body totally still. If the Finalizer is giving him nightmares it doesn’t show.

And he’s still asleep when Finn brings in a food tray after his own evening meal. Finn sets the tray on the chair and leaves.

//

“What time is it?” Poe asks, stumbling back from the fresher when Finn comes back the next morning. His hair is a delicious mess, curling wildly over his ears and spiking up in every direction, and his lips are very red and slightly swollen with sleep. Finn wants to touch them. Or maybe kiss them. Poe’s eyes still look bruised.

“Ten in the morning,” Finn says.

“What day?”

“Uh?”

“What day?” Poe grunts and sits down.

“The next. You’re waking up?”

“Nope. Needed to take a leak. Back to bed.” He yawns. “Good night. Uh. Morning.”

“Sleep well, Poe.”

“Huh, Finn?”

“Yes?”

“Thanks for the tray. And for holding my hand yesterday. Much a- ahhh –” he yawns, and Finn stops waiting for the end of the sentence when he realises Poe is asleep again.

He looks at Poe’s parted lips and wonders why he feels disappointed.

//

Finn tries to check up again in the late afternoon but he bumps into Karé Kun, her hand already on Poe’s door. She smiles and greets him but however nice she probably is, he doesn’t feel comfortable around her. Kun is a tall woman, blonde, commanding. And a captain. He can’t help the flashbacks to another. He nods and excuses himself, letting her step into Poe’s quarters. Captain and Commander. That’s how things are, he thinks. She’s probably good for him.

He hears laughter inside and doesn’t even hesitate. If Stormtroopers are good at something, it’s eavesdropping at their officers.

Finn loves Poe’s voice, how rich it can sound, how high it sometimes rises, how sandy it often is. But it doesn’t bear that well through the thin walls, while Kun’s clearer alto goes clear through.

“Remind me who lost the bet exactly?” she’s saying.

Poe laughs and his answer comes louder. “Come on, Karé. You’re the one who misses it! I know who’s been spreading the tale all around the base.”

“You can’t have kept a decent dress with you after all these years, anyway,” Kun says – eagerly?

Finn can’t hear anything afterwards, and he doesn’t think that’s because Poe mumbles. It’s a genuine, growing, embarrassed silence. There’s probably some sort of social code at work, of the kind Finn still struggles to understand. Poe’s been, or hasn’t been, keeping dresses for Kun and it must be somewhat forbidden, or at least intimate.

“Poe?” Kun asks after a while. “Come on, you kept them?”

“No, of course not,” Poe answers – probably, he’s speaking very low again. “You know how we all left.”

“Buuut?”

“Okay, there’s one. I spotted it in one of the Vjun bazaars during a mission and it was – it was just – I knew it was the right size, and the colour…”

“Yeah. Flashy?”

“Gorgeous. Not flashy, why do you always have to be like that, come on. Gorgeous. You’ll see.”

“Yeah. I bet it’s flashy.”

“So you’ll help? You know it doesn’t work as well if you don’t play.”

“Of course I will. Just like old times, eh? Will you need me to do your eyes?”

“I sure won’t! Who do you think I am?”

“A respectable, clear faced Starfleet commander, that’s who you are. Not some louche barroom entertainer.”

“I’ll do them anyway. If I slip a little, that’s part of the appeal, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. Right. You’re counting on me for the heels, though, aren’t you?”

“Sure. Because I know I can.”

Kun’s laughing, and as Finn can hear her walk towards the door he edges away. Anyway, he was beginning to feel completely lost. Eyes and heels and dresses. How can you do eyes, and why are Kun’s heels so special?

But there’s something else. Kun and Poe sound comfortable around each other, but like old friends. Not like lovers. There’s a pang in Finn’s chest when he realises exactly how much relief he feels at the thought.

//

In the next days, Poe’s alternatively sleeping or ‘rehearsing’, whatever that means, and Finn is lonely again.

“I’m sorry,” Poe says, his hand back on Finn’s bare arm, which shivers, and his eyes boring straight into Finn’s. There are tiny specks of warmer orange in the dark brown and Finn gets lost in the contemplation. He has to make Poe repeat.

“I was saying I’m sorry I can’t spend more time with you, now that I’m grounded. There’s that bet, and I –” Poe’s smile becomes apologetic and – unsure? “I don’t want to spoil you, I think. A bit like a, ah, a present, and when you know what it is about you’ll think I’m totally ridiculous. I’m already ridiculous. Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Finn says, as perplexed as ever. He traps Poe’s fingers between his own arm and hand, and that, at least, feels good.

//

The mess hall has been turned into what they’d have called, back in the First Order, a public reunion room. There’s even a stage, but no one has made any speech and it’s currently being used by various groups of half-inebriated people who sing or try to dance and don’t appear to bother to convey any meaningful message. They don’t even seem to care whether the crowd pays them attention.

The long, warm night has fallen and all the vents are open, sending wafts of moss-scented, humid air through the room. It mingles with the clouds of a thickening smoke in which Finn can smell a lot of substances, some he knows and are mind-altering, and some he’s discovering on the spot. He feels uneasy, sandwiched as he is between Jess Pava and Iolo Arana. Poe insisted for him to be seated near the front among that row of officers and that’s not Finn’s place at all. Pava’s laughing to herself and smoking something conical, big and fragrant.

“You all right?” asks Nielhio the bartender, setting a glass of something harmless in his hand. Finn smiles up. From behind Nielho’s shoulder the old Mon Calamari smiles back, sort of.

“Yeah, I’m, uh. A bit overwhelmed? Is that normal, all these illicit substances circulating around? Secure? I mean, for a military base?”

The wet sound comes from the Mon Calamari, conveying something like appreciation (or hilarity. Finn’s not an expert). “Kid’s got a good head on his shoulders,” he says, at the same time as Nielhio exclaims: “illicit? What in the Galaxy is illicit here?”

“Everything’s all right,” says the Mon Calamari. “Don’t worry. The complete watch is still up outside and half of the guys here are on call. They won’t touch anything. Your friend Dameron will stay sober, whatever else he does, and Arana here won’t get near a smoke. Pava and Wexley, on the other hand…”

“This joint’s the first and last,” says Pava, grinning. “I want to be sober enough to watch Dameron make a fool of himself.”

“A fool, uh,” Arana says. “That’s what you think. You just watch, Testor.”

Someone whistles and the last drunk clears off the stage. Karé Kun enters from the side, rolling up some herbs in a thin cylinder. She winks at the Mon Calamari.

“Harmless, Ablikh,” she says. “Mostly. Duty, yeah.”

She’s not wearing a dress. She’s in her orange flightsuit, which she rolled down to her hips to reveal a faded black tank top. Her heels are, as usual, hidden in her flying boots. Her eyes don’t look done, whatever that could mean. She walks through the stage and sits at a keyboard as the crowd shushes and whispers and shuts up.

The cylinder hangs limply from her lips, adding its thin wisps of smoke to the cloud. She lays the bottle she’d been nursing on the side of the keyboard.

“Low alcohol content, Ablikh,” she groans. “Fuck.”

Finn tries to imagine Phasma in the same settings and fails. Kun’s slouching more than he ever saw her do, and she’s making the crowd laugh at her – _with_ her.

“Just like old times,” Arana says in a delighted, somewhat hungry whisper. His eyes roam over her body, which, sure, still looks good in spite of the over-relaxed posture, the black top hugging her breasts and enhancing her muscled shoulders.

“Hey, Captain, where’s your uniform? That’s no way to step on a stage!” yells a tech in the crowd.

Kun grins. “What uniform? I ain’t lost no bet,” she drawls, like no captain Finn ever heard. “I just play the keyboards. _He’s_ the one you should watch.”

She gestures with her cigarette to the back of the room, and maybe that’s the way a captain should move because all eyes follow her hand. The crowd, again, hushes.

“Well, _fuck_ me,” says the same tech.

“Son of a –” comes from somewhere in the crowd. “Dameron.” “Oh, _Force_. Commander Poe Dameron. Pinch me.” Heads swivel and the crowd wavers and gasps and swears as Poe walks slowly to the front. He even found a tracklight to follow him.

“ _Flame red_ ,” Finn thinks, wondering where he heard that before. Flame red, no other words for the colour of Poe’s dress. A red so bright it’s nearly orange, but warmer, deeper, the same colour, maybe, as the lines on Poe’s black X-Wing. In further echo of his ship, black accents in two thin lace bands adorn the long sleeves and the trim of the plunging neckline. The dress shimmers as he walks, flowing around his ankles, caressing his calves and thighs and then hiding their lines in a flurry of fabric, hugging tighter around his hips and the curve of his ass. It looks rich, never too aggressive or shiny. Never flashy.

“Gorgeous,” Finn finds himself saying aloud, and he’d swear Kun winked at him.

Finn knows about dresses like that. Every Stormtrooper has had to stand guard at officers’ formal events. He’s seen young women in crimson, flowing muslins at the arms of generals, respectable officers’ wives in rich silks, diplomats in embroidered traditional attire. But a military man, a high ranking officer, male, in a woman’s dress? In front of his own troops? He’d never even have imagined it.

Even in slow motion, Poe’s kept his way of perpetually seeming on the edge of surging ahead, shoulders forward and up and head held high. His steps are jerky, his body straight, fast forward and then stop, like he couldn’t be bothered with the hip balancing one would expect in such clothing. But his usual gait never came with such a wobble before, nor with that clicking sound. Women’s shoes with high, needle-thin heels, _Kun’s heels_ , Finn sees in a flutter of the dress. They’re slender and delicate and incongruous on Poe’s feet, making his progression look precarious, like walking in them is an art he never quite mastered.

Or maybe he did. Maybe that’s exactly what he’s aiming for, that discrepancy between his flyboy swagger and the exquisite, feminine attire. As he reaches the stage he turns toward the crowd and tosses a stray curl off his eyes in his usual brusque manner, the move so out of place for someone so adorned, the rest of his hair slicked flat and held in pins, his eyes _done_ , smoky, with the eyelashes sculpted even more impossibly long, and the mouth painted a deeper red than the dress. He hasn’t shaved too closely and the five o’clock shadow shows starkly against the spotlights. He’s never looked more masculine, nor more beautiful.

“Fuck me,” Finn exhales, a curse, a wish.

He’d swear Poe’s slow smile with the red, red lips is only for him, but then Finn turns to watch the rest of the audience around him and sees that so many others, of all genders and species, would swear the same.

“Like old times,” says a delighted Arana. “He’s still got it.”

Poe’s managed to nick Pava’s joint and is bringing it to his mouth, his lips already curving around. The crowd moans. Ablik half-stands up from his seat.

“Okay,” Poe sighs, taking care to talk into the mic. “Duty. One pull and I’m done, Ablik.” He chuckles, sort of motions at himself and gets a stilettoed foot out from his dress, turns it around. “Force knows I needed it. Maybe I don’t look like it but I’m scared shitless. Been a long time, guys.”

Poe draws on the joint and holds it up. “Who wants it?” He asks, smoke trailing from his mouth.

“I’ll have it back, thank you,” says Pava, looking unimpressed. “Get on with it, Dameron.”

Poe breathes in deep and clears his voice. “Okay. You ready, Karé?”

Kun balances her half-smoked cigarette on the side of the keyboard and plays a few chords in way of an answer.

It’s a song. In Finn’s not so documented opinion, not well chosen. Poe sings well, Finn guesses. He’s surprised to hear that his singing voice is clearer than his talking one, quite round in the lower notes and agile and sweet when climbing high. The crowd’s laughing.

It’s about someone, an expensive whore, a courtesan, explaining a man that he should, like the others, pay. Poe’s making faces, exaggerating the falsetto, trying to look and sound like the caricature of a woman. It’s ridiculous and a little insulting. He’s not a whore. And whores don’t look like that. But the crowd is still laughing.

Then Finn realises Poe’s been falling back to a more natural voice. That he’s been adding words in the verses, twisting the meaning of the song. That he’s grinning.

“ _Get out of here,”_ he sings,  
“ _Give me some money too.”_  
“ _Why don’t you do right,”_  
“ _Like some other systems do._ ”

The verses aren’t about a whore anymore. But maybe the Resistance officer who’s singing them feels like one. It’s about begging for funds for the Resistance. Asking for allies, for ships, for fleets and fighters and any kind of help. Kun, very briefly, looks surprised. Behind her slouch and her act, there’s an intensity to her gaze on Poe, more verve in her playing.

“ _Get up in space_ ,” Poe sings, his grin predatory, white teeth showing behind red, red lips,  
“ _Give me some supplies too.”_

The mood in the crowd is changing. The laughter’s still there but not at Poe anymore. At themselves. At fate. There are whistles and shouts of “yeah, right!” and singing along in the choruses.

“ _Why don’t you do right,”  
“Like some other worlds do ---”_

Poe holds the final note for a long time, his body pasted to the mic pole, his lips rounded, real technique behind the way his breath goes on, while Kun in the back gets wild on the keyboards. The note finally fades and the crowd erupts in cheers, Finn with the others. On his left, Pava’s clapping with affected restraint, nodding and saying: “he’s okay. Okay, he’s good.”

Kun segues into another chord sequence, which makes Poe raise an eyebrow.

“Love songs already, girl?” he says.

“You can do it, flyboy. Imagine they’re for Black One.”

“Or for BB-8!” someone yells.

“Ah,” Poe breathes, looking at the audience between his eyelashes, one hand resting on the fabric of his dress on his upper thigh. Finn would love to know how it feels. “You guys can imagine whatever you want.”

The songs are nothing surprising. Finn has even heard some of them, in the same formal events in which he stood guard. The object of the singer’s attention is always a man and back then the singer was always a woman. Sung by Poe, who’s not bothering to change the pronouns, they sound different. Poe isn’t trying anymore to sound like a man acting, badly, like a woman. He sings as a man in a beautiful dress, with his real voice, sometimes rising high but often staying low, a man’s voice. He sings with his flyboy stance, his feet well apart and his hands on his thighs, with some aborted gestures to the unusual hairdo and some jerky moves of his head like he isn’t used to the sticky eyelashes or the single curl falling on his forehead.

He licks his red, red lips more often than usual, not used, either, to the sticky, red lipstick there.

Finn wonders if Poe’s going to smudge the black mascara around his eyes. And how it would feel if he himself were to press and drag his thumb across Poe’s red mouth.

As Poe sings about the man who saved him, about watching his man sleep and longing for him to wake up, or about the colour of his man’s skin, eyes, hair, as Finn would swear again that Poe’s looking at him, only at him, Finn begins to feel mesmerised by the dress.

It is the right size, as Poe said, but not the right shape, a woman’s dress, obviously tailored for a woman’s body. The fabric is stretched taut across Poe’s strong shoulders, and his hands, in spite of fingers that are long and slender for a man, appear overly large emerging from sleeves that hug his arms so tight. But then the dress, made to mould rounded breasts instead of flatter pecs, wrinkles and gap a little on the chest – Poe’s seems smooth, Finn notices, wondering if an even deeper cut would reveal hair, wanting to look. Lower, the fabric hugs the ribcage and stomach closer again, making, from shoulders to waist, a lovely V shape. There’s more room in the hips area, but not as much as one would believe, because the curve from Poe’s lower back to his ass is truly gorgeous, and the ass itself rounder than Finn thought.

The skirt of the dress flares low, so that it still clings to the junction between hips and thighs, and Finn can’t help staring there, stomach and hips and pelvis and strong, strong thighs, can’t help imagining how it would look if Poe had an erection in that dress – it would tent, it would show. Finn feels the heat creep around his ears and in his groin, and knows that others stare too and are sharing the same thoughts – the same emotion. It makes him feel annoyed, even jealous that Poe would reveal himself like that, and of course he then feels dumb.

Then he remembers the hidden softness on that stomach that looks so perfect from afar, Poe’s hand on his own as his fingers dug in just a little, the light rise of Poe’s belly under those fingers as he breathed. That’s something Finn knows and the other watchers don’t, something Poe didn’t share with the crowd. The emotion turns to another kind, intimate and tender, but it only encourages his hard-on. Finn pulls down at the hem of his tunic, hoping it will be enough to hide the growing evidence.

Meanwhile Poe is singing about keeping himself for his man and making himself ready, which is, depending on how you look at it, completely ridiculous or damn hot. His gaze happens to fall on Finn mid-squirm, catches his focused, downward look, the way Finn happens, right at that fucking moment, of course, to lick his lips. Poe grins and bats his eyelashes at him, then trails the heels of his hands from his ribs to his upper thighs, tilting his hips a little. His palms come to rest lightly on the fabric there and Finn imagines the smoothness under his hand, wonder whether it’s light or heavy, whether it breathes or whether the skin underneath is beginning to cling with sweat.

Finn swallows and has to set his jaw not to moan, but he’s not sure about the sound he utters anyway.

“Dammit, Poe, stop playing,” groans Arana. He pats Finn on the biceps. “You’ll be alright, kid. I find that thinking of the grime in the east wing lavatories helps, myself.”

Finn sends him a desperate look.

“And if I know him well,” Arana goes on, “he won’t feel like going on with that lovey dope for much longer. He’s better than that.”

That’s what happens. Progressively the dress, the heels, the eyes and the red, red lips become secondary to what’s simply Poe and Kun’s music. Kun is on her own for one number, still slouching and apparently relaxed, but with hands that dance on the keyboard, playing with unbalanced harmonies and strange blue notes, running and stopping, until it resolves in nonsensical verses she sings with a veiled, warm voice, about washing up the dishes, liking buttered pasta, taking out the garbage and loving someone else’s uncle. She smiles to Arana when she’s done, and he smiles back.

Poe joins her afterwards, in what’s all in all not such a happy set of songs. Most numbers feel nostalgic or plain sad.

There’s one for which Poe concerts with Kun beforehand, Kun shaking her head and saying: “can’t follow you here, buddy. Don’t know it well enough. Sorry.” Poe then captures Kun’s glass and raises it, “for Shara and Kes,” then launches a cappella into something in a language Finn doesn’t understand. Others seem to know it, though, and the singing along in the choruses becomes wild.

“It’s a drinking song,” whispers Arana, but Poe looks mostly wistful when it ends and segues into verses Arana tells him are thanking life, but mostly remembering the past.

At Finn’s other side, Pava’s finally admitting defeat. “That motherfucker,” she says, sounding impressed. “I thought he’d run dry after three or four songs. How often did he use to do that, Iolo, do you know?”

“They were such fun,” Arana says, his eyes far away. “They were so good. But they’re missing Muran.” Then his ears seem to perk up. “Wow,” he says. “He’s got balls. Ten credits they’re gonna crash, Pava.”

“Deal,” Pava answers. “I’m beginning to think they can do anything.”

Poe began alone, and now Kun follows. To Finn ears, is sounds alien, a message coming from beyond the Galaxy, emitted by a mystery and distorted by distance. The singing melody is full of melisma and acrobatic jumps, and Kun’s background harmonies never seem to fall back on a known chord. Kun actually swears twice, first when her hands don’t manage to follow Poe’s broken rhythm and the second time in admiration when Poe lands a particularly impressive ornamentation. At one point, Poe colours and begins to sweat, when the note he hits sounds even more bizarre than the rest. He comes closer to the keyboard, and afterwards the strange melodic lines begin to make sense to Finn.

It’s a pilot’s song. Not about dogfights, runs, speed, aerobatics. Poe sings about the swirls of hyperspace, the darkness and the distance between the stars, the awe and the fear at witnessing, from afar, two black holes merging. When he tells about brushing past clouds of ionised gas there’s wildness in Kun’s strings of notes and Finn, somehow, understands the strange, majestic, lethal beauty.

When they end Kun and Poe high-five and hug, and the pilots, all the pilots in the audience, are standing up.

“By the everlasting Force,” Nielhio’s saying to Arana. “I’d never thought a Human could sing that.”

“Yeah,” Arana whispers. “But if one can, it’s Poe.”

“My ten bucks, Iolo,” Pava says, extending her hand.

Afterwards they keep it up with another pilot’s song, but an easier, comical one of a guy who always gets out of the most over the top situations by sheer luck. The crowd seems relieved of the change of tone and laughs heartily, but not Arana, who sits back in his chair, his mouth pressed in a strange line.

“Muran,” he says.

Finn looks around. Many of the Stiletto and Dagger squadrons, Kun and Arana’s ones, and some of the older pilots look the same way, solemn and sad. Wexley’s eyes glint suspiciously. Now that Finn watches them closer, Poe and Kun don’t look that happy either. Poe’s voice breaks on the last note of the song.

“Sorry, guys,” Poe says. “Seems it’s easier to be funny at twenty than at thirty-three. To Muran, may his memory never fade.” He clears his voice, bends down to retrieve some water and drinks. “Anyway, it couldn’t go on forever, could it? Voice’s getting tired. Call it a night?” He’s grinning, standing up against the wave of angry shouts, whistles and clapping in the crowd.

“Okay. Okay,” he repeats, looking straight at Finn. Gulping, clearing his voice once more, biting his lips. He does something with his body, a sort of ripple, a small move that sets the dress in motion and suddenly it’s there again at the front of Finn’s mind, the flame red, the shimmering fabric, and Poe underneath it all.

“Okay,” Poe says again, his voice gritty. “The last one’s for someone very special. Someone I –”

The sentence end is drowned by the blaring of the general alarm, in a stop and repeat pattern, while the lights go low and red and blinking.

“Well, shit,” says Poe’s voice in the mic in an interval. “Sky red alert. Nothing on the ground. Not an exercise. Everyone, you know what to do.”

//

Finn isn’t on duty. He doesn’t even have an affectation. But he’ll be damned if he stays in the shelter and so he follows Poe and the others outside.

“Ematt,” Poe shouts. “What’s up?”

“A Ceregian Belliath-class super freighter. Unstable orbit. Holds filled to the brim with Abafar republican refugees. And a respectable cargo of fuel.”

“Huh. They got our coordinates? How? Going to land? Fuel’s good news, at least.”

“That’s not the problem. They were infiltrated by the First Order. Their ship’s damaged, they can’t steer it well enough. Communication from the ship to the cockpit is problematic, physically speaking.”

“Not well enough to land? And the orbit?”

“Downwards. To us. Someone calculated the sabotage well enough.”

“Fucking hell. A big, fuel loaded bomb over our head, uh. And filled with innocents. With Ackbar and the General away, who’s got the shift? Statura?”

“Captison.”

“Huh. He’s awake?”

“Coming this way.”

“Dameron?” shouts an old Human male in an impeccable general uniform. “I thought you were grounded?”

“Back on active duty as of today, Sir,” Poe answers, assuming the slightest hint of an attention position.

General Captison doesn’t appear convinced and is looking Poe up and down. “What’s that?” he says, gesturing with his chin.

“A dress, Sir. Also, heels, but they’re fucking, uh, sorry, very uncomfortable. Here, Karé. Thanks.” Poe takes them off, standing barefoot in the warm mud. He’s got nice feet, Finn muses.

“A ‘ _dress_ ,’ Commander? I heard you were, uh, _entertaining_ tonight, but I thought – what kind of example – by the stars, I’m sorry to have to ask that, but are you sober?”

Poe’s mouth is pressed so thin the lipstick doesn’t show.

A string of whistles comes from behind him at knees heigh – BB-8, coming to his pilot’s rescue.

“I never could learn their mumbo-jumbo,” says Captison with a sneer. “What is he conveying?”

“He’s saying, Sir,” says Major Ematt, “that his sensors are perfectly calibrated and that Dameron’s blood levels are well below the limit. And now that it’s settled, what are your orders for the present emergency?”

“What can you do, shipwise, Dameron?” Captison asks.

“How much time to we have, BB-8?” Poe asks, and grimaces at the answer. “He’s saying it’s a matter of thirty minutes, forty in the best scenario. Not much time for getting ships ready. Oranxch, how are our VCX freighters? How many fuelled? And the shuttles?”

“Three freighters in working order and half-full, Sir. That’s all. The shuttles should be alright.”

“We’ll have to pull the refugee’s ship out of the falling orbit, using our light freighters’ tractor beams,” Poe explains. “And then we can’t let it hover over us, not with whatever the First Order might have put in. So we send it into the sun. Three VCX ships, huh. That should do it.”

Captison lets out a scandalised huff. “Aren’t you going to board that superfreighter’s cockpit? Try to pilot it down? Thousands of refugees are in there, and you’d send them into the sun, with the eyes of most of the Galaxy on us? The First Order propaganda will have a field day!”

Poe looks like he’s going to explode very soon, but manages to grit his teeth and breathe down. “What do we have on the cockpit state, Ematt?”

“Not good. Piks Shidah’s in there with them, that’s how they got our coordinates. They said they wanted to make allegiance to the Resistance. Uh, anyway, Piks says the commands are mostly unresponsive and that explosive charges were detonated at the walls. The cockpit’s airtight but it holds to the main structure by a couple of torn beams and nothing more.”

“Piks, uh? Shit.”

“What’s the matter, Commander?” Captison asks. “Isn’t Lieutenant Shidah a good enough pilot for you?”

“Now listen to me, General,” growls Poe. “Ground me again afterwards or lock me up, I don’t care, but right now we’re dealing with an emergency so if you don’t have anything useful to say kindly refrain from talking! Sir!” He sighs, blinks and gets his finger off the General’s chest. “Piks is an excellent pilot, which, good news, because we can trust his assessment. And it’s a fucking damn tragedy, because, because he’s going to die! The chances we can rescue the guys in the cockpit are so slim they amount to none.”

The whole group of them has been walking to the hangars as they speak, and Poe’s putting on his life-saving gear as he speaks, as do the other pilots.

“As for the rest, we can’t let the First Order propaganda have a field day, uh. So the plan is to send the shuttles up with a small troops force, not to board, but to filter whatever First Order agents mingled with the refugees, and then get everyone down. Meanwhile, our tractor beams will have to keep their freighter stable long enough. Depending on how many people are up there and how smooth it goes, might be a bit tight. Iolo, I know you’re qualified for light freighters. I’ll take the second one. Karé?”

“I’m not qualified, Poe. Must have tried tractor beams twice in my whole life.”

“Fuck. Snap, you can lay that gear down. You’re out. Saw you drink.”

“Shit. Sorry, Poe.”

“Yeah. Pava? That joint was the only one?”

“Yes. My astromech says I’m alright.”

“Okay, you take the third. Karé, Stiletto will take the shuttles, you’ll lead. Ematt, you lead the troops?”

“Sure.”

“No,” Captison says. “Ematt stays down. We can’t know how well the filtering will go. We need a strong enough reception force on the ground. Ematt is the best we have to organise and lead it.”

Ematt nods. “You’re right, Sir. That leaves us with a problem. Who’s going up?”

Ablik, the old Mon Calamari, steps forward. “I volunteer, Sir.”

Captison squints. “Aren’t you, uh, a bit, uh, old? You’re Ackbar’s old aide, aren’t you?”

“Yes, Sir! Still can fight, Sir!”

Poe smiles. “And you’re, of course, perfectly sober and able to pick up the guys you need. Tell me, Ablik, would you take Finn with you?”

Finn jumps. “Who, me?”

Captison’s head swivels so fast it makes him look like a training target. “The Stormtrooper?”

“Ex-Stormtrooper,” Poe says, his voice so dry Jakku’s got nothing on it. “Should I remind everyone of what he did for us?”

“I trust him,” Ablik says. “Yeah, I’ll take him with me. He’s a good shot, and, hum, I guess he was taught about crowd control, even though, huh, their goals aren’t the same as ours.”

“Finn?” Poe asks.

On one hand, Finn yearns to show Poe he can help – or rather, he thinks, catching Captison’s doubtful side-eye, he wants to show them all Poe’s trust is well-founded. On the other, he feels the old panic creeping up. The one that took over as the Stormtrooper transports flew down onto Jakku, and that made him useless here – at least, unable to kill. There are civilians on that freighter as well. Infinitely more numerous than in that village. And mingled within, agents of what’s now the enemy, people, maybe, that he’s known before, that he might have to kill.

Poe sees him waver and pulls him gently by the arm to take him aside, motioning for Ablik to follow. They stand directly in the impressive shadow of Black One and in the middle of such a crisis Poe doesn’t seem to find the words to go on. He’s still got that dress under the flying gear, the harness turning it into a kind of incongruous culottes, pulling the skirt up his bare feet and shins. From that close his eyelashes are really impossibly long and Finn can’t help letting his gaze fall on lips that Poe is licking again. Poe’s hands grip his arms, and Finn finds his own on the sleeves of the dress, fingers stroking the fabric.

“Poe,” he says. “I’m not in shape. At all. Medical didn’t even clear me to train. I’ll slow the others down in a fight.”

“Good,” Poe says, “because you’re not going up to fight, I hope not, and if anyone tries to do things too fast we’re headed for a bloodbath. What we need is your eye. Thousands of civilians up there, and, what, five? Ten? Maybe twenty First Order guys we need to set gently apart before they understand we spotted them and go up in a fight. If someone can find them it’s you, Finn. You grew up with them, know them from inside out, tactics and body language and all.”

Finn nods. “Okay,” he says. “I – I can’t even imagine how I’m going to do it, but we have to try, don’t we?”

“That’s the idea, kid,” says Ablik. “And if we fail, Ematt will still have a chance on the ground.”

“Hey,” Poe says. “Finn.”

“Hey.”

“I told you the idea’s to avoid a fight. But I know that you don’t like – you don’t want to kill anymore. You may have to, whatever I’m hoping for. If that’s too much to ask – you can say no, that’s what I’m trying to say.”

Finn can’t help the smile. “Maybe it’s the idea that I’m allowed to refuse,” he says. “Kind of makes it hard to. I want to go up. I’ll do my best. And uh, Poe?”

“Hm?”

“You just yelled at a General. What’s Captison going to do when you come back?”

“Ha,” laughs Ablik. “Nothing. When we come down, he’ll be off shift and Statura is much less of an asshole.”

Poe smiles, nods. “That’s not how I hoped this night would end,” he says.

“Yeah. Same.”

Poe’s eyes are on Finn’s lips and if Ablik weren’t there, or BB-8, that little sneak, maybe they’d have kissed. But as it is Finn just lets his fingers trail along the sleeves of the dress as Poe steps away and turns towards the massive silhouettes of the light freighters, far away in front of the second hangar.

“See you soon,” Finn says.

“See you soon.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still unbetaed, concrit is appreciated. I'm not a native speaker and I need to improve!

The superfreighter is a wounded behemoth. Parts of its shape are illuminated by the countless lights of ports, lifelines and connexion segments, while other sectors are blind blotches obliterating the stars, some of them with jagged, torn edges. Against its enormous mass, the lights of the three Resistance freighters are hard to spot, so small they look like toys.

One of the holds is gaping open, the air held in by the force field. Inside, the refugees are so numerous they look to Finn like a sea of people, a single, frightening, oscillating organism made of imploring heads.

They turn the first shuttle entrance into what Finn can only think of as a refugee chute. Pushing the mass of people along into a line some ten or fifteen large, making them walk, silent and scared, along the small Resistance force, making them fill in the first shuttle, and then another, and another. Counting them. Assessing them. Resisting their wish to talk, to ask, to know. Not enough time.

“How much time do we have?” Finn asks Poe through his comm.

“Three hours, max,” Poe answers. “Pava and Arana will uncouple first. I have more power and fuel so I’ll stay longer and do the final pull to the sun. But once I’m alone I won’t be able to stabilise the freighter for long. Better if everyone’s out by then.”

Three hours, for four holds like the one they’re in, how many people per hold? Finn finds himself trying to calculate the debit they need to maintain, the probability of finding an infiltrated agent, the frequency with which they might appear, set first against the whole number of civilians, then against the smaller number of Humans, hence First Order likely candidates. The numbers he comes to are either false or panic-inducing. He breathes in, lets it go, just watches them all as they walk, the families, the small children, the old couples, the angry young men and women.

Time passes. Poe’s first song roams inside Finn’s head, the last, made-up verse reaching earworm status very fast.

 _Get up in space_  
_Give me some supplies too._  
_Why don’t you do right,  
Like some other worlds do._

These people got up in fight. Tried to give whatever supplies they had to the Resistance. Lost everything they had. Might die in the process.

Something catches his eyes. He smiles to Ablik and tries to look as bored as ever as he says: “I’ve spotted two. I think. They’re standing at ease.”

“Huh?” Ablik says. “We’re standing at ease, too.”

“I mean, _regulations_ ease. First Order regulations ease. Same distance between their feet to the millimetre, and I could go on reciting the exact stance for each part of their body.”

“Really? Why don’t you recite them to the ground command, too? If we miss some of them, they might be able to program a droid to spot them when they disembark.”

Finn begins to do so, talking softly, matter-of-factly into his comm. Ass they pass by, the marching people’s gaze brush off him, just another weapon-bearing element of their nightmare. It feels too usual, like the last months in the Resistance were but a dream.

It also makes the time pass easier as the queue progresses and the two agents slowly approach the boarding area.

“They’re in the middle,” Finn says. “We’ll have to isolate a larger group and work from here.”

“Sure. Tell me when.”

“Now.”

“Ladies and Gentlemen,” Ablik begins with an air more like a butler than a soldier, “Medical’s this way, please.”

It plays normal and pleasant and when the group of twenty people or so has been diverted to an adjacent corridor, it’s easy to approach each person individually and just put the two under lock.

“Wow,” Finn says. He’s sweating retrospectively.

//

It’s easy, finally. Always remain polite, don’t run, don’t shout, hide your weapons, just take the suspects away.

There’s one who might have caused trouble, but their luck holds, at the price of other’s. The guy knew Finn. Knows his face, obviously, either from some kind of wanted posters or they’ve been in the same team before. He probably didn’t realise the way his head jerked in a reflexive attempt to hide was that obvious in the middle of the expressionless, tired crowd. He has a weapon, is preparing to use it, has his hand hidden in his coat as he drags his feet forward more and more slowly, his expression hunted, trying to huddle away from Finn. And Finn has his own hand gripping his blaster tighter and tighter, his palm sweaty and his heat beating too fast, desperately trying to visualise a line of fire that won’t bring down ten civilians with his target.

Then something clangs and echoes throughout the whole hull. The violent shaking ends in a strong, remote explosion. Someone yells, areas of the crowd ripple and surge as people try to stand higher to see something.

Ablik’s voice isn’t powerful enough to prevent the beginning of a panic outbreak.

But it’s easy, with people shouting and running, even climbing atop each other, to come into the fray and engage the spy in hand to hand combat. Their fighting is hampered by the press of bodies and the trampling of feet, becomes a blind grappling at throats, faces and groins. At one point Finn feels the sting of a blade on his cheek, blood trickling down into his neck, remembers to fight dirty and sends the guy down with a hilt blow to the head.

Thankfully, yelling from inside the crowd that they aren’t falling down after all is enough to bring some measure of order back. The agent’s body gets pulled on the side and shipped to Medbay together with the other victims of the stampede – no time to assess further.

“What was that?” Finn asks into the comm.

“Shit,” Poe’s breathless voice sends back. “You alright in there? That was Snap Wexley, coming up with the tanker ship. We had to make him fly, in the end, the only guy with the required qualifications, and he’s not up to his usual standards. Although I’m not sure there were any right ways to unload the fuel, when I see the state of that fucking coffin. You’d better hurry, I’m guessing it won’t be airtight for much longer.”

“Is Wexley alright?”

“Shaken but okay. He’s pumping the fuel out. Beware, there’ll be another shock when he finishes.”

“Poe, what’s the matter? You sound strange.”

“The cockpit blew off. Totally. With everyone who was still in. I saw parts fly by.”

Finn doesn’t ask what kind of parts. “Shit,” he only says. Poe doesn’t answer.

//

Pava’s voice in the comm makes Finn jump. “Pava to everyone, I’m off,” she says. “Fuel’s below the security line.”

“Dameron speaking, copy that,” Poe says. “Stiletto’s got one shuttle left. Ablik, how are you doing inside?”

“Ablik here. Finn and I are clearing the last hold. The others have left. All done in two minutes.”

Relief makes Finn realise how exhausted he is. Then Poe swears, creatively, in at least two languages.

“Poe speaking,” he says finally.

“Yeah, I’ve noticed,” Ablik groans.

“Finn, Ablik, BB-8’s heat sensors are catching signs of life in one of the gunner turrets.”

“Then they’re not refugees,” Ablik says after a silence. “Can’t we just leave them there?”

“No. They’ve still got a window to shoot us down, Arana and me. So that the ship falls on the base.”

“Okay, says Finn. I’m going. Poe, can you guide me? Does BB-8 get my tracker signal?”

“Perfectly.”

“Turns out I’m going to kill people, after all. How many, Poe?”

“BB-8 says three to five. It’s not clear. Maybe three with two smaller ones, non-humans.”

//

Finn runs through corridors, bumps into closed doors, tries alternate routes with Poe calm instructions in one ear and a small echo of BB-8’s whistling behind. The freighter is huge, larger than Han’s old monstrosity, possibly even larger than the Finalizer.

“Arana speaking, I can’t hold any longer. I’m off.”

“How close am I?” Finn asks.

“Almost there,” Poe says. “Finn, I don’t care, go back to the shuttle. If they shoot I’ll try to stay in their blind spot.”

“Where are they? Give me time, Poe.”

“Door on the left, but I’ll manage, go back to the shuttle, Finn!”

There’s something behind that door. Finn can feel it, the same prickling, the same heart-squeezing sensation he’s always felt when close to Kylo Ren, but smaller. Not innocuous, just scaled down. He kicks the door open, assesses, steps back and slams the door, flattens on the ground, making himself small, harmless, _don’t see me, don’t see me_. A blaster melts a hole over his head. The floor begins to sway.

“Poe,” he whispers to the comm. “Give me more time. Please. Stabilise the ship, just a few minutes more.”

“What,” Poe says. “What’s in there?”

“Something,” Finn says, cold with fear. “Someone. Only one First Order, but – but I think, Force-sensitive. A Knight of Ren. And four hostages. Two children. And one dead on the ground.”

“Get out of there. Fucking hell, get out!”

“No. I can take him. Poe, how long can you hold?”

“Finn! Fuck – okay. I’ll give you time. Just gotta bypass that and – ow!”

“You okay?”

“Yeah. Okay. It’s gonna shake but it’s normal, Finn. You’ve got seven minutes.”

The panic’s gone. Finn finds he’s floating, a heady, euphoric sensation, like he sometimes felt during training, or with Poe on that TIE or with Rey aboard the Falcon. His hands set his blaster just like it needs, and he opens the door, adjusts for the ship tremors, aims to the head and shoots. He runs to the masked, robed body and hauls it up, yells to the hostages to follow, comms to Poe for guiding instructions.  Someone, the mother, bends down and takes the dead child with her. They run.

It’s only when they’re safely in the shuttle that he realises what he’s done. He checks it twice, but the blaster is still set at its lowest. He retrieves the manacles at his waist, passes them on the Knight’s hands. Removes the mask, considers the huge blooming bruise on the stranger’s temple. Turns the blaster one notch higher, because he’s not feeling that reassured, and directs it close enough to the Knight’s head. Waits. Breathes.

“Poe?” he comms, feeling the hysteria build up. “Seems I didn’t kill anyone after all. I, uh, stunned unconscious a Knight of Ren and brought him back. Just realised what I did. Got no idea of what to do with him.”

Snorts don’t sound good through a comm. “Oh, Finn. Finn, I just love you. You’re incredible, you know?” Poe finally comms. “As for your knight, I guess we’ll have to sedate him, at least until the General comes back. Maybe until we’ve got news from Skywalker. I don’t feel like discovering what a trained Force user can do to get out of confinement.”

“And you?”

“What, me? I’m not in confinement, thank the Force.”

“I mean, how are you doing up here?”

“Oh, got that pile of debris well in hand. Give me two hours to direct it to the sun and I’m down. See you soon, Finn.”

Finn has to fight back the nervous laughter. “See you soon, Poe.”

//

Running to Poe as he steps down from a ship might well become a habit, and one Finn has nothing against. But this time they stand facing each other, arms down, as BB-8 bloops and rolls around them excitedly.

“Let me guess, he’s called BB- _8_ because he loves to run in figures around people’s feet?” Finn says.

“Exactly. BB, buddy, I’m glad you’re happy that Finn’s there too, but right now, uh, aren’t the other droids celebrating somewhere? Or meeting our guests? _Not here_? Please?”

BB-8 blaarps resentfully but rolls away. Slowly.

The combination of whatever Poe put into his hair and a helmet makes for a wild mess. He’s got large black smudges around his eyes and a corresponding one on the back of his hand. He seems to have licked off all the lipstick.

He’s also got a bruise, red and blue and shiny, on his cheekbone, and his lips are blue. He’s shivering.

“I’d hug you,” Poe says, teeth chattering. “Believe me I would. But we’ve got the two starry idiots as a reception committee. We’d get interrupted.”

“Huh, starry – ah. Generals.”

“Hey. Standing at attention isn’t necessary. Believe me.”

“I know, I know. Old habits die hard.”

“Poe!” shouts Statura, beating Captison on the finish line. “Glad to have you back among us! Lieutenant Pava was saying the oscillations were nearly out of piloting range at the end.”

That’s definitely outrage on Poe’s face. “I had it under control, Sir,” he nearly growls.

Statura smirks and elbows Captison who looks like he’s going to blow off from restrained anger. “Of course, Commander. You did great. Everyone did.”

“How’s it going on the ground?”

“Well, thanks to Finn, we’ve got nineteen living First Order prisoners, one of them sedated under droid control in the medbay, and two more the droids detected upon disembarking. We’ve also acquired about forty-four days of good quality fuel, and uh, the equivalent of a small town of exactly three thousands, seven hundred and ninety-nine heads. It’s rather good news, whatever you say, Captison.”

“Spies,” Captison barks.

“A few left, probably. We’ll have to establish some kind of quarantine, separate the base from their camp. And sure, that’s a strain on our resources and the families make us more vulnerable, but there’s a lot of qualified personnel, even some pilots, Dameron.”

“Freighter pilots?”

“Yes.”

“Thank the Force.”

“And Finn might well have become an honorary member of a family of Kadas'sa'Nikto in the process. The hostages. By the way, young man, with what you did up there, if you’re not at least a little Force sensitive, I’m the queen of Naboo.”

“Huh,” Finn says, managing to bite off the curse that menaces to get out. His knowledge of Force users doesn’t go beyond those raving mad Knights of Ren and scary stories of blank-minded Jedi monks. He doesn’t want any part of it.

“Many of the refugees wanted to see you both. To thank you. I, uh, said that the operation forces would be too tired coming down. Captison had warned me about the, hum, attire.”

“Oh,” Poe says. “Fuck. The dress. I had forgotten.”

“I admit I hesitated, Dameron. Introducing our best Commander in his smudged makeup and entertainer dress and adding young Finn with an unconscious Knight of Ren on his shoulder would have made a perfect introduction to the Resistance permanent circus. But I’m told Abafar is a rather conservative world. Too much of a cultural shock.”

“Next time, maybe,” Poe says.

“There won’t be a next time, Commander,” Captison barks.

Poe only smirks. The generals leave, Statura patting Captison on the arm or maybe pushing him off.

//

Poe presses the heels of his hands on his eyes and contemplates the makeup stains on his palms. He sighs, looks down on himself and begins to ubuckle the harness.

“I look ridiculous,” he says.

“No,” Finn says. “You don’t.”

Poe looks up to Finn’s face, brushes his fingers over Finn’s left cheek. “You’re bleeding,” he says. “That cut didn’t miss the eye by much.”

“One of them knew me. I think he’s FN-1101. I’ve always suspected he was a plant, that they set him up in our squad to spy on our moods.”

“And how did you suspect?”

“His gossip felt all wrong.”

“Gossip, huh. Would love to know what Stormtrooper gossip about.”

“You're not missing anything.”

Poe retrieves a sterile tissue from his discarded gear. “Let me,” he says, mopping at Finn’s cut, then spraying something. “Gonna sting. It’s a hemostatic.”

“And you?” says Finn, his fingers coming to rest on Poe’s cheekbone. “What’s that?”

“That’s when I bypassed the securities to shut off the auxiliary functions.”

“Huh?”

“You asked me for time, so I had to spare the fuel. I shut off the autopilot and the stabilisators. With the added mass of the wreck, the ship reacted, uh, violently.” He shivers. “The bypass also set the heat on survival. Fuck, I’m freezing. Whatever else that dress does, it’s not made to sustain sub-zero temperatures.”

“But it’s beautiful,” Finn says as he takes off his jacket and wraps it around Poe’s shoulders. “And soft. How does it feel? On your skin?”

Poe shivers again. “Would you like to try? I mean, to touch?”

“Yes,” Finn says.

They’re very close. The sleeves of the dress are covered by Finn’s jacket, so Finn settles for laying his hands on Poe’s hips and slowly trailing them up his ribcage, bunching the bodice a little in the process. Poe sighs and closes his eyes.

The fabric feels light, very finely woven. Tiny threads catch on the calluses of Finn’s hands. It’s textured and quite thick, in spite of the lightness, Finn is surprised to discover. Rich. It makes the dress flow instead of float. A fold catches the light of a lone projector and shimmers.

“Flame red,” Finn says.

“Yeah,” Poe says, voice choked, sounding far away. “Karé says it’s orange, but it’s not. Flame red, yeah.”

Finn lets his hands slide down on Poe’s lower back.

“You’ve got big hands,” Poe says.

Something else catches the light. The fabric’s beginning to tent between his legs.

“What are you wearing underneath?” Finn asks. “Nothing? Can’t have felt good with the harness.”

“Nothing,” Poe confirms. “I had other plans for the night.”

“With me?” Finn asks, feeling dizzy.

“With you.”

“I love this dress,” Finn says.

Poe swallows. “I – oh, fuck it. I love you.”

“I –”

“You don’t have to say it. It’s okay. We can just fuck.”

“I love you too, Poe. I think.”

Poe tilts his head and kisses Finn. His nose, his lips, even the tip of his tongue feel icy. His skin smells of makeup and sweat. Finn presses himself against him, sharing all the warmth he can. Their erections press together.

“Let’s take it to my room,” Poe says. “Large bed. Better that way.”

Finn can only grunt and follow.

//

Poe’s quarters are warm. Poe definitely had plans for the night because while it’s not tidy by Finn’s standards at least the floor is clear and the wood can be seen in patches on the desk.

Poe lets Finn’s jacket slip on the ground and Finn bends to retrieve it and hang it on a chair. When he stands up Poe’s busying himself with a tiny hidden zipper at his side – there has to be a way, of course, to remove the dress.

“No,” Finn says. “Keep it on. Unless you’re afraid of wrinkles? Or stains?”

“Wrinkles, after what it endured tonight, uh. I think that’s too late. And it washes well. Okay. Let’s baptise the dress. Can I at least remove your shirt?”

Poe’s hands are already underneath, mapping Finn’s stomach, bunching up shirt and undershirt together, pulling them over the head,  then back down stroking Finn’s sides, cold hands over sensitive, rippling skin, and then over Finn’s belt.

“Your pants,” Poe whispers. “Can I?”

“Yes,” Finn breathes into Poe’s mouth, warming his lips, tasting the last remnants of the lipstick, running his hands into Poe’s spiky, curly, tangled mass of hair. Finn’s pebbled nipples brush against the wrinkled silk covering Poe’s torso, sliding smooth along the bodice, scratchy over the trim, and Finn can’t help his moan. His pants slide pool on around his ankles and Poe plasters a hand flat on his upper thigh, cups his balls through his briefs, then pushes the heel of his hand up the whole hard length of Finn’s cock. One of Finn’s hands leaves Poe’s hair, trails along the exposed curve of his neck, follows the line of his collarbone and plunges into the groove between the pecs, inside the dress.

They’re both breathing hard. Fast, hot puffs of air tickle the hair over Finn’s ear.

“What are you doing?” Poe rasps inbetween moans. “Don’t ruin it! You’ll loosen the hem, the lace is fragile, your hand, don’t rip – ah, fuck, good, do that a – no, don’t, the hem, fuck –”

“Found a nipple,” Finn pants, “won’t let it go. Don’t you know, Poe, the neckline, the dress is gaping there, just a little, I wondered, are your nipples brown, I bet they are, small and dark.” He flattens his hand to explore further, smiles at the breathlessness in Poe’s protests.

“They’re smooth, too, smooth pecs all over, couldn’t believe it when I got a glimpse, did you shave?”

Poe pulls back, captures Finn’s arm carefully and extracts it from his cleavage. “Don’t ruin it, I said. Yeah, my chest’s smooth, and no, I don’t shave, that’s natural.” He steals a hungry, wet kiss and smirks. “Got hair around the navel, though, but if you want to explore you can do it from below.”

Yes. Oh fucking hell _yes_. Finn’s already on his knees, hands circling Poe’s ankles, the hem of the skirt brushing his forearms. He extends his head to nuzzle Poe’s erection through the fabric. Poe swears.

“How does it feel?” Finn asks. “The silk on your cock?”

“Guess,” Poe says, and that’s Finn who moans.

Finn trails his hands up the inside of Poe’s legs, slowly, feeling the scratchy skin of his knees, the goosebumps, the twitching of the sturdy, strong quads, looking up and savouring the way Poe worries his lower lip, then bites it frankly as Finn reach his inner thighs. The skirt is fuller than Finn thought, so much fabric flowing down his arms and gathering against his shoulders.

“Yeah,” Poe manages to say, “I’ve got hair there too, decided against shaving or putting on tights. I wanted the contrast with the dress and Karé’s heels. Secret. All for you.”

 _Cocky_. Finn knows exactly how precarious Poe’s control is, sees the flared nostrils and exposed throat, the flutter of his pulse at his neck, feels his shivers against the tip of his fingers. He has to undo him, wants to hear him stutter and moan, decides to plunge inside. The silk ripples over the nape of his neck, hugs his shoulders and cascades over it, making him a warm tent full of the scent of Poe’s arousal. He pushes the dress higher over Poe’s stomach, against the hair, there as promised, catching slightly in the fabric, and makes room for his head close to Poe’s groin.

“Oh Force,” Poe rasps. “Wait. Gonna have to sit down or I’ll topple over.”

They laugh as Poe walks backward, Finn following on his knees, head between Poe’s thighs and clutching at them for balance until they more or less collapse on the bed, Finn’s upper body still inside Poe’s dress.

“Holy fucking shit, what a magnificent ass,” Poe says. Finn supposes he’s got a good view. “Did you chose the red briefs on purpose?”

“No,” Finn says against Poe’s thigh. “That’s what came up on the clean pile. I had absolutely no idea of your _plans_ until recently. I’m glad we match. Though I can’t really appreciate it from inside.”

Inside there’s the tantalising hardness of Poe’s dick along Finn’s cheek, the wetness of precome at his temple, just against his hairline, Finn’s nose grazing Poe’s bush, the musky, tantalizing smell, and finally, finally, Poe moans as the stubble along Finn’s jaw scratches his cock lightly. And Finn can’t wait, wants more of this, mouthes the length as Poe’s moans drag on, and takes the head in. Just with that Poe shouts, a low, inarticulate, short cry, and can’t help bucking into Finn’s mouth, lightning fast, not very deep, just once. Finn licks at the slit, tentatively, and can feel him tremble with the effort to stay still.

“I’m sorry,” Poe says, panting already. “Want it so much. Want it hard.”

Adrenaline, Finn thinks. Poe’s just down from a long, lonely, bumpy run, feared for Finn’s life, had the Resistance base and the life of thousands at stake. He’s still riding high, needs someone to ground him, to remind him of who he is, and where, needs skin touch and lips and cock and ass, and hard, and _fast_.

Finn _wants_ hard. He won’t dig too deep, but he’s still shaken by the Knight encounter, and his heart sill beats too wild. He would love to forget his own mind for a while with a cock heavy in his mouth and deep in his throat. He too wants skin against skin, and hard muscles, and a hard cock, and Poe’s arms to hold him. But he doesn’t want _fast_. He knows fast. He’s had fast in the past, a training session gone mad and a still helmeted comrade pounding his ass afterwards. While this is Poe. This is the most glorious dress ever. This has to last.

Poe’s cock is still delicious to explore, and so he lets it slide over his tongue, tastes the saltiness, feels the soft delicate skin against his throat and swallows as deep as he can, and just stays there, not moving. Poe gasps but wills himself to keep still, only reaching with one hand to touch Finn’s shoulder through the silk.

“Force dammit,” Poe says through gritted teeth. “Move. Please, Finn, move.”

And Finn does. Once. Twice. Slowly. Savouring Poe’s cock, taking it again as deep as he can.

Poe is trembling, grunting, nearly begging, obviously on the edge of breaking down, wanting nothing more than to push in even deeper and fuck Finn mouth. Finn pulls off and emerges from the dress.

“No,” he says. “I don’t want you to come so fast.”

Poe hisses.

He’s lying on the bed with his legs dangling over the side where Finn kneels. His pupils are blown so wide they seem to merge with the dark irises. Dark makeup is smudged all around his eyes and his lipstick-less lips are red again, from arousal, their line sinuous, sinful, parted over white, white teeth. The dress is riding high, wrinkled over his torso, wetness staining the fabric a darker red where it tents at Poe’s groin.

Finn pushes the skirt even higher, uncovering the jutting, flushed cock. The silk pools all around like the petals of a flower.

He has to dig his nails into his palms, _hard_ , to prevent himself from coming on the spot, from the sight, from the lingering taste in his mouth, from the strength of his feelings.

“I wish you could see yourself like that,” he says. “So – so undone. Beautiful. So beautiful, Poe.”

“What do you want,” Poe says, pushing himself up on his elbows. “Finn, just tell me, I don’t care what, I can’t wait, I need –”

“Can you –” it comes out as a croak, and Finn has to clear his voice. “Can you last? Because if you can I want this in – I want this gorgeous cock in me.”

Poe grins, lopsided, wild. “You want time, eh? Where did I hear this before? Can do. Yeah, I think I can last.” He licks his lips and his cock visibly twitches. “Want to ride me, Finn?”

“No, I – ah – on all fours. From behind, anyway. I, uh, I’d like to have you at my back, feel the silk on my skin.”

Poe smiles even wider. “You like that dress more than me, hmmm?”

Finn feels his ears heat up. “No, I –”

“Just kidding,” Poe says, and pulls Finn over him for a kiss. It lasts. And lasts, until Poe breaks it. His voice is notably lower and breathier as he says: “let me find some slick.”

The lube is the third thing he fishes out from under his bed, after a box of headache pills and a treaty on the navy tactics of the Old Republic.

“How come you still have those briefs on?” Poe says, dipping a hand inside and a finger along Finn’s crack. “The dress can stay, but no more briefs.”

Then Poe is on his knees, and Finn lies on the bed, has his legs arranged just so, and Poe stroking his whole body up and down, around his shoulders, lighter on the scar on his back, pushing deeper on his buttocks and the back of his thighs, murmuring endearments and small exclamations of praise. He finds Finn’s cock and palms it, weighing it, thumbing the slit. Lets it go to trail a thumb over Finn’s hole.

“Fucking gorgeous dick too,” Poe says, “next time I’ll blow it, or I’ll sit on it, you’d like that? You like both, do you, you’d like me to ride you?”

He’s licking his lips again and now Finn wonder if he’ll be able to last himself. “Yeah,” he tries to answer, but it comes out garbled. “Get on with it,” he tries again, hearing the whine in his voice “open me, Poe.”

A slick finger finds his entrance, and a second very soon after. The skirt of the dress makes a cocoon around them, half trapped as it is under Finn’s pelvis. He moans.

“Tell me if I go too fast,” Poe says, his voice wavering. “You feel tight.”

“Go on,” Finn says, and pushes against Poe’s fingers. It feels good, the filling-in, the stretch and the burn as the third finger comes in, Poe’s other hand on his too-hot skin, soothing, caressing, exploring, tender, intense, wanting.

“Now?” Poe asks. Finn can only nod.

He feels Poe’s fingers raking his curls and a kiss at the nape of his neck, then the caress of silk as it drapes over his back, then Poe’s knees against his legs, and a strong, callused hand at his hip. He shivers as the head of Poe’s cock breaches his hole, whines as the thick length presses in by an inch.

Poe stills. “Oh damn fucking hell, shit, no!” he swears, and for an instant there’s only the sound of precipitated breathing and his trembling hands gripping Finn’s hips too hard. He’s going to come, Finn thinks. He was already on the edge, so high-strung, it was too much to ask, fuck. He tries not to move, and with Poe’s tantalising cock just barely in his throbbing, aching hole, waits.

“It’s okay –” he begins to say.

“Yeah, I’m good,” Poe says, relief in his voice, and something like tenderness. “Fuck, you feel too good. Beautiful, beautiful ass.” Slowly, oh so slowly, he presses in the rest of the way, inch, by inch, by inch, and Finn feels filled, stretched, feels his back tense and his mouth water and goosebumps on his skin, so long since he’s had a cock inside his ass, and never like that, never someone taking the time to make him feel it.

Finn exhales a long shaky breath, ending in a shout as Poe bucks his hips. He can’t talk, his words caught in the waves of his pleasure, can only moan and shout along with the broken rhythm of Poe’s strong, deep thrusts. The skin of his whole body feels raw, too cold or too hot, yearning for touch. He pushes himself up, discovers the old-fashioned wooden headboard of Poe’s bed, rests his forearms on it and pushes back, meeting the slam of Poe’s hips, feeling Poe’s torso mould against his back.

Poe chuckles, slightly choked. “Oh, yeah,” he says. “The dress.”

There’s emptiness as Poe’s cock pulls nearly all the way out, and then the tiny hiss of flowing fabric, silk caressing his back, being draped again around his shoulders. There’s Poe’s hand, covered in silk, creeping up his thigh, dipping in between his legs, cupping his balls, and then the smooth, so smooth fabric drapes around his dick, Poe’s hand circled around it, moving in small, firm touches. Finn shivers and moans and Poe slams his own cock back in, and Finn shouts.

His body is tingling all over and there’s the slide of silk on his back, the slide of Poe’s cock in his ass, the slide of Poe’s silk-covered hand on his cock, and it’s so many sensations at once, so much to feel, too much –

“Poe,” he says, summoning the last of his control, “if you keep on like that, ah – your hand, touching me with your hand, I’m the one, ah, fuck, Poe, please, I want to last, please –”

“Oh, Finn,” Poe only says, “Finn…”

He lets Finn’s cock go, and that’s enough for Finn to step back from the edge, but keeps his hand on Finn’s thigh, drapes the other arm against his torso, buries his face against his neck and his cock all the way in.

They stand like that for what feels like an eternity, both on their knees, flush against each other, thighs plastered to thighs and torso to torso, hips against ass, Poe buried to the hilt and only able of a small, fast, uncontrolled bucking. Then he sighs, long and shuddering, extends to try to reach the corner of Finn’s lips with his own, moans and resumes stronger, longer thrusts. Finn turns his head to meet Poe’s kiss, pushes back to help Poe spear him deeper, cries out as Poe’s cock hits his prostate, and again, and again, harder.

Their pace fastens and now Poe is panting, grunts and moans escaping his lips. His silk-encased arms feel damp with sweat where they hug Finn’s chest, and suddenly the dress feels unnecessary, a numbing layer over Poe’s skin, a barrier between them.

“I want to feel you –” Finn manages.

“What,” Poe says, “you don’t feel –”

“I want to turn,” Finn says, trying and failing to make sense, “I want to kiss you, watch your face –”

“Yeah?” Poe says, breathing fast, still pounding Finn’s ass.

“Want to feel your skin, all your skin, see you naked, Poe, take off the dress.”

“You bastard,” Poe says, a definite whine in his voice. “Now?”

“Please.”

“Oh, Force. Finn, right now, I want to pound your ass like there’s no tomorrow, make you shout, make you beg, do you know how hard it is to take that dress off?”

Poe thrusts in again, his angle perfect, and Finn yells, then catches his breath.

“Please,” he manages again.

Poe groans and pulls off, leaving Finn empty and yearning for more. “Okay. You help me.”

The tiny zipper is only on one side. It creates room for Poe to wriggle some, but how could it be enough? The fabric wave also seems to give some stretch – not that much, and in spite of what Poe made the dress endure this night, he appears to treat it with reverence as he’s delicately pulling at the sleeves.

It’s an exercise in patience and concentration, and also a physical performance worthy of a contortionist. It involves strangled curses, some panting, frustrated moans, a strange, asymmetrical shoulder wave, and then Poe’s head disappears inside the neckline, his hands up above his head, the right pulling at the left sleeve.

“Could you pull the sleeves?” comes his muffled voice. “Gently? Up my head?”

The sleeves slide off as Poe bends forward, then the bodice follows and Poe emerges, red and out of breath, to take the dress off Finn’s hands. Finn watches incredulously as Poe steps away to find a hanger, brushes ineffectually at some wrinkles, and hangs the dress carefully, the only well-stored item of clothing in the room. Then he turns back to Finn.

It’s the first time Finn can take his time to watch Poe fully naked and he stares. His ass, of which he had a great view as Poe was hanging the dress, is exactly as round and meaty as it promised while still encased in silk. The skin of his body is one tone lighter than the golden hue of his face, neck and extremities, with stark demarcation lines that Finn will have to follow with his mouth.

The tiny, rather fresh scars at the crook of his elbows and on his chest and belly, even at the base of his neck, Finn would prefer not to know where they came from. Electrode burns and injection sites, and he wills himself to ignore them. There’s another scar, older and larger, a white jagged line along Poe’s ribs, a probable accident. The rest, to Finn delight, matches what he guessed and mapped, strong muscular shoulders, high, smooth pecs with dark pebbled nipples, a well-defined waist in spite of that mouthwatering hint of softness at his hips and navel. The patch of hair coming up from his pelvis forms a delicious swirl on his belly.

His cock is still fully hard, thick, flushed dark, up against the nest of black curls.

Poe looks down, then back up, straight into Finn’s eyes.

“So,” he says. “Here I am.”

He blushes and a wave of tenderness submerges Finn.

“What?” Finn asks.

Poe chuckles. “I’m, uh, feeling self-conscious. A bit.”

“Huh?”

“Ah, I don’t, usually. Wonder about how I look. But…”

Finn is so hard it aches and his hole tingles from the memory of Poe’s cock. He pulls Poe back on the bed. “Poe Dameron,” he says, pecking his jaw, neck and chest with kisses that become sloppier and sloppier, “roughly half the base, whatever age, gender or species, wants to fuck you, and that’s not because of your brains, as if you didn’t know.”

“Yeah,” Poe says, “but I want to fuck _you_ , and you’re –”

Finn lets himself fall back, so fast that he bumps his head on the headboard. “Oh, shut up. Fuck me.”

Poe is suddenly very close and his eyes are very dark. “Yes,” he says, and buries himself inside Finn’s ass so completely and so fast it takes all air out of Finn’s lungs.

“Like that?” Poe asks.

“Fuck. Oh, fuck,” Finn pants. “Yes. Oh, fuck.”

Now Finn wants hard, and fast, and gets it. His legs are hooked around Poe’s torso, feet nearly at his shoulderblades, their chests touching and sliding, soon slick with sweat, and Poe takes Finn’s mouth in a kiss that hasn’t got anything pretty in it anymore, tongue thrusting hard in time with the thrusts of his hips.

“Like that?” Poe asks against Finn’s mouth, again, and then gets back to fuck Finn’s mouth with his tongue, fuck Finn’s ass with his cock, deep and fast, but Finn can’t answer anymore, just pants and shouts and raises his hips to withstand the pounding.

There are Poe’s curls falling into Finn’s eyes, a glimpse of the blackening bruise on Poe’s cheekbone, Poe’s panting in his ears and Poe’s hard nipples brushing his own, and Finn hooks his fingers in the muscles of Poe’s back, digs his nails, sure he’s drawing blood, not caring. There are Finn’s fingers gripping Poe’s buttocks, pulling him closer, deeper, and it’s so incredible, so maddening, Poe’s cock so thick and hitting in so right, and Finn wants to say it, wants to tell him how incredibly good it is, manages only to whine, or moan, or beg, “more, more, Poe, more,” with each ramming in of Poe’s cock.

And then there’s Poe slowing down, pushing inside long and deep with a throaty gasp, opening Finn even wider, feeling oddly tender, his eyes large and dark and faraway as he seems to listen and feel for every of Finn’s moan or sigh or shudder. There are Poe’s hands in the frizzy hair at Finn’s temples and his thumbs mapping Finn’s face, following the line of his lips, there’s Poe’s murmuring in Finn’s ear, voice broken: “you’re incredible, Finn, I love you, beautiful, stars, so beautiful.” There are others long, torturous, slow, delicious thrusts, until Finn is forgetting how to breathe with each of them, until he doesn’t know anymore if he wants to beg or just lose himself in them.

They both moan at the same time and it’s Finn who pushes up, Poe who meets him, shoutin, and now there’s no rhythm in the frantic movements of their hips. “Touch yourself,” Poe says, his voice raw, but as Finn does Poe manages to balance himself on one arm and intertwines their fingers, buries his face in Finn’s neck, mouthing and biting as they pump together.

Finn yells and clenches and feels his orgasm wrack him, his spunk spurting sticky-wet between their bellies, aftershocks coursing through his cock for a long time. And then there’s Poe thrusting again, once, twice, thrice, an aching, acute kind of pleasure inside Finn’s well-used hole, then Poe tenses and keens, high and long, as his cock shudders and pulses and finally releases.

Poe collapses on Finn. Finn can feel his belly flutter against his own as they both breathe fast.

“Oh Force,” Poe rasps.

“Ouch,” Finn says after a long, long while. “My neck. You bit me.”

“Sorry,” Poe says.

“Are you?”

“Uh. No. You?”

Finn raises heavy fingers to prod the slightly raised, pulsating area at the joint between neck and shoulder. Long ago, letters and numbers were tattooed close by, black ink on the dark skin of his collarbone. Poe’s mark is the first he loves. “Not at all.”

//

“Are you asleep?” Poe mumbles.

“No, but you were. On me. For the blink of an eye. Tired?”

“Heh. Night was long.”

Poe rolls off Finn’s chest. They’re sticky.

“Credit for your thoughts,” Poe says, following the line of Finn’s gaze. “You look entirely too alert. Oh. The dress.”

“The dress.” Finn knows he didn’t quite erase the awed-envious tone from his voice.

“Would you like to try it on? We’re the same height.”

“Same size too? I’m larger.”

“Hmmm,” Poe makes appreciatively, massaging Finn’s biceps. “Or we could find another one for you.”

“For me? I don’t sing!”

“You don’t need to sing to put on a dress, you know. Yeah. That way you’d get your own cut and colour.”

“But – flame red…”

“A lighter tone, perhaps? Something to set off your skin tone?”

“But –”

“Ah, no. No. You like strong colours, uh. And dark skins make colours pop. But not red.”

“No?”

“Your skin has those warm hues, would be a shame not to try for some contrast – I know! Listen, Finn. Aqua blue, a strong, deep aqua blue. You’d like it?”

“I – ” in spite of his unexplained memories of flame red, Finn’s knowledge of colour names is rather limited. But he can imagine – greenish blue, like a warm sea, vivid, the fabric shimmering on his skin – “yeah. I’d love it. I - I think. In the same fabric as yours?”

“Definitely, if we can find it. It’s Pterigyan watercane silk. Comes from far away, and right now… Anyway. Same fabric, different cut. Boatneck, with short sleeves? Or halter top? Your shoulders are too good to hide, same as your arms.”

Poe’s raised himself up on one elbow and is all but caressing Finn’s upper body, drawing the hypothetical lines of his dress on his skin with one finger.

“Oh my,” he says, low. “Your arms.”

“I lost muscle,” Finn says. “With the coma and all.”

“You keep saying that. Can’t wait to see you at your best then. Hm. Halter top would be too, I don’t know, obvious, what do you think?”

“Poe, I don’t even know what a halter top is.”

“Trust me. So. No halter top, and boatneck feels a little prim. Off shoulders? If you don’t mind uncovering this?” Poe’s fingers come to rest on the tattooed clavicle, his thumb massaging it a little, as if he were trying to erase it.

“That’s a part of who I am,” Finn says. “I don’t. And I’d show the scar, too,” he says defiantly.

Poe’s fingers trail away, brushing the bite mark at the neck. Finn shivers.

“Yeah,” Poe goes on. “Off shoulders, like a debutante dress with some kind of delicate lace trim, and then they’d watch you from behind, they’d see your shoulders, the muscles of your back, and that scar, and they’d be reminded of who you are. Imagine, Finn. With your short hair, and the line of your neck, you’d be –” he gulps and licks his lips and his hands are everywhere, on Finn’s back, on the nape of his neck, hugging his shoulders – “Force, just imagine.”

Finn imagines. Mentally replaces the scratch of Poe’s callused hands on his upper arms with the caress of silk. “Yes,” he whispers.

“You’d like it, hmm.” Poe’s smile has acquired a delighted, kind of predatory quality. His hands slide from Finn’s arms to his pecs, then lower, splayed on both side to draw the shape of his waist. “The silk would hug you,” he says hungrily, “you can’t believe the feeling, it clings but it breathes and is sorts of holds you tight. Tight on your chest, since we’re imagining we can decide it’s been tailored for you, and tight lower, maybe tight enough to show off your abs, because I don’t care what you say but you’re fucking trim.”

Poe’s words sound so silky themselves, and his hands so caressing, that the sensation of fabric on skin is nearly real. “And even lower?” Finn croaks, voice gone rough. “Tight?”

Poe’s hand follows Finn’s thoughts. “Tight, to showcase your ass, yeah. Yeah.” He thinks. “Or not.”

“Or not?”

“Think of it. A flare, immediately below your waist, with a gored skirt, the kind that makes a triangular shape. But lots of fabric, heavy enough, but flowing. You’d walk and kick it and it’d move, flat against your ass then flowing around in the next second. They’d get glimpses, and they’d stare, how they would stare. They’d try to guess. And me, me, I’d know the real shape of your ass under all that silk.”

Finn moans. “Poe, you keep talking like that and we’re going to have a problem.”

“Hm. A big, _hard_ problem?”

“You hard too?”

“Half. So soon after, can’t promise it’s going to go anywhere. ‘m not as young as you are, uh.” He lowers an appreciative gaze to Finn’s groin and bites his lower lip. Smiles at Finn’s groan. “But you want to fuck either my ass, or my mouth, I’m your man.”

“Poe.”

“Hm?”

“You’re – I mean, are you always like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like – ah, I don’t know! Like, you’re, ah, Poe, what do _you_ want?”

“Your cock?”

“Poe!”

“Finn, I want you. Promise. Right now, and maybe, no, not maybe, for – ah, fuck, don’t let me get ridiculous again. I want _you_ , and your cock in me sounds really good right now. Mouth or ass?”

Poe looks _hungry_ , and that’s maybe what makes Finn answer: “Mouth. I mean, please. If you –”

“I.”

//

The aqua blue dress will probably remain a fantasy in their minds. Pterigys is at the opposite side of the Galaxy in a sector that’s firmly held by the First Order. And even if it weren’t neither of them is going to fly there in the foreseeable future.

They’re at war.

Finn is a Stormtrooper, and you can make the ex- in front as big as you want, it won’t negate the fact that he knows duty comes before anything. Poe will fly on a mission tomorrow, or if not, the next day, and it wouldn’t even come to Finn’s mind to ask him not to. That the Resistance gained pilots and fuel doesn’t mean Poe can slow down, and if Finn knows anything about him it’s probably going to be the opposite. They’ve also gained people to shelter, and with them potential spies. The Resistance might have become stronger, bigger anyway, but it isn’t more secure.

Poe, or Finn for that matter, might die tomorrow.

But Stormtroopers were never encouraged to look too far into the future.

And, as the night is giving way to dawn outside, Finn’s got a mouth around his cock, and Poe gazing up at him looking debauched and undone. The last smudges of makeup will soon get wiped against Finn’s skin but his eyelashes still look impossibly long and his eyes impossibly bright.

Finn is discovering a heart can swell with love right when a body swells with pleasure, and that’s enough for now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> This was born from having two unrelated ideas at the same time, one being that Poe needs to be put in a dress (there's already a fantastic fic of Finn in a white dress, by gloss, go read it.)  
> The second was the realisation that the Resistance base can't really stand (float? We're in space) behind the lines, not with the kind of lineless Galaxy-sized guerilla war I was imagining. And that it meant you have to feel the weight of fear, at least some repressed feeling of doom, even when writing about resting time or entertainment.
> 
> Don't know if I make sense! Or if any of this came through in the story. And I'm afraid it made for a disjointed kind of fic. Hope you had fun reading it anyway, don't hesitate to tell me! I cherish comments. We all do.
> 
> I've got a tumblr, which I alternatively let rot or spend my nights on. You're welcome to visit! <http://la-tarasque.tumblr.com/>

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah. That was (is) my Poe as Jessika Rabbit fic, sort of. No one's fanfic writer career is complete before you've written a red dress crossdressing fic.
> 
> If anyone recognises the garbage and buttered pasta song then you're very good (or French, and still very good). Let me know!
> 
> EDIT : AND NOW WITH FANART! WOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO!  
> there: [Poe Dameron in a flame red dress by meekobits](http://meekobits.tumblr.com/post/149181702964/beautifullights1-this-is-all-your-fault-for)


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